The people who just a couple of years ago were only known for making displays have upped the bar again. Last year ViewSonic came on the scene with a Pocket PC device that is slimmer than most of the competition and comes standard with SDIO and a great looking screen. Less than a year later, the company has announced a new initiative in the software space: Visual Solutions.

Pocket PC V37: a new Pocket PC that looks just like the V35, except that it features the .NET Compact Framework pre-installed, a 400MHz processor, and 64 MB of ROM and 64 MB of SDRAM. An SDIO Wi-Fi card for the device is also expected to be available soon.

airpanel V210: a wireless monitor that allows enterprise users to access information and applications on their corporate servers from anywhere in the range of their wireless networks. The airpanel also has an optional dock that allows the user to plug in a mouse and a keyboard.

N210 video processor: any ViewSonic display can instantly become a wired or wireless visual client. The device features the following connectivity options: VGA and DVI inputs, and composite and S-video outputs. In addition, it can be used to remotely access your desktop, and for VOIP.

Tablet PC V1100: the latest update includes Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) capabilities that let you use the device as a telephone through an Ethernet wireless network via an included Bluetooth wireless headset.

The whole concept working together is a sight to be seen. I was fortunate enough to be treated to a demo by Michael Boehm, chief software architect for ViewSonic. Here's how it all played out:

Using the Visual Solutions Developer Tools, an application pushed the latest version of another application onto the ViewSonic airpanel V210. Basically, the administrator was able to control exactly what appeared on the device. In this scenario we actually saw a “Press OK” button, but you can force an update in stealth mode without needing user interaction. What's even cooler is that the developer of the application can actually store the application in a part of the ROM so that if you run out of battery power the application is safe and sound in the last state that you used it.

I immediately envisioned outside sales reps using the airpanel. The alleviation of the support headaches alone would justify the purchase. I used to support guys in the field and it was inevitable that they wouldn't have the latest application installed.

To top off the demo, a call was placed over Wi-Fi from a V37 to my mobile phone. It's very cool when it all comes together.

From start to finish a scenario could play out like this:

Your outside sales rep has some information on his laptop but then picks up his airpanel and takes that to a customer site. Later he takes his V37 home with him, and all of the devices have the latest information synced.

Here's the more techy stuff:

Without getting into too much detail, since the ViewSonic folks also make the hardware they have written APIs that let you control pretty much every aspect of the device. For example, I was shown a demo application that showed me the signal strength of the Wi-Fi connection and the display brightness. The application also let me change the brightness. While this may not sound impressive you have to think of what you can do as a programmer with this type of control. For example, you could write an application that automatically forces a sync back to the co-location facility when the power dips below a certain amount. In addition, you could write into that same application that if the battery power hits a certain point the program could force the brightness to be lowered, thereby extending the life of the device.

So, why is this really cool? Microsoft has an installed base of 7 million Visual Studio developers. With the launch of the .NET Compact Framework, all 7 million can now program for the Pocket PC and other wireless devices. To capitalize on this Microsoft is also offering a coupon for a free V37 to approximately 25,000 of the first developers who purchase Visual Studio 2003. As for the latest version of Visual Studio, it includes a bit-for-bit emulator for developing on the Pocket PC. In addition, if you've ever programmed for Windows it's not a far stretch to be able to program for the Pocket PC. Plus, if you're one of the first 25,000 developers you'll have your own Pocket PC to play with, courtesy of ViewSonic.

It's about to be a whole new world for Windows programmers, and ViewSonic is well positioned to be king of that world.

USER COMMENTS 2 comment(s)

Nothing really new here(3:04pm EST Thu Mar 20 2003)It's important to note that the concept of experienced VB programmers being able to seamlessly create apps for the PPC using VB.NET is not really anything especially new. This is how development basically worked with the Palm-sized PC. MS had a plug-in available (about $200 I think) for VB6 (or was it VB5?). When the PPC was launched, the new tool of choice was eVB (embedded VB), a separate IDE that looked just like VB, except that it was of sub-beta quality. Now, they've dropped the “give away the tools” idea and gone back to their old idea, except that it's now even MORE expensive to play, as you need VS.NET which is over $1000. They're marketing this at the enterprise. – by Scott R

Viewsonic skulduggery(12:54pm EST Fri Apr 11 2003)Why has the bruhaha over the V35's supposed 64mb of ram just sailed over the horizon?How quickly we forget. – by tommyboyprime